Award-winning comedian, actor, and producer, Ayo Makun have shared the genesis of his long-standing beef with his colleague, Bright Okpocha better known as Basketmouth.
In an interview with media personality, Chude Jideonwo, AY was asked why he talked about an uncontrollable superiority complex when a fan asked about the misunderstanding between him and Basketmouth in a question-and-answer section on his Instagram stories in May 2022.
Revealing what led to their beef, the box office King went down memory lane in 2006 when he was still a bachelor and trying to earn a living for himself. He said he stood in for Basketmouth at an event however he didn’t receive his pay of thirty thousand Naira which was gold at the time.
He said, “In 2006, Basketmouth usually will get gigs like weddings – multiple gigs on a Saturday, maybe 2/3 weddings. So what he used to do at that point in time was to attend one, then at a point, leave the venue and catch up in the other venue and then you will need someone else to stand in for you. That was the opportunity I got from him of which I am very appreciative of till date.
“Something funny happened. One of the gigs per say, I got his endorsement to go stand in. Usually what we get at that time is N30,000 and 30,000 at that time was everything to me. It would buy me my pack of indomie, recharge cards, fuel for my ‘I better pass my neighbour’ generator and then an opportunity to pay just one or two people to join me to do one or two skits that I can just quickly put out.
“I got this job and the people weren’t too happy to see me around the venue because they were expecting a Basketmouth to come. Long story short, the guy was later happy after the performance. There was an exchange of contacts. Then I left.
“Two weeks running, I haven’t seen 30k. Because I didn’t see the 30k, and I was starving in Iponri, I decided to ask for 30K and he said this person hasn’t remitted, this person hasn’t you.
“And then me I was like, ahahn… but this person na, shebi you tell me say you were impressed and happy? Give my oga hin money na, make my oga take settle me and all of that. Me, I don’t care if you give Basket 100k for the job but my 30k is my 30k. It was very funny knowing that this full payment has been made long before the event.
“Seeing the situation of things, I forwarded this one’s message to this one and vice versa. So they now started fighting each other and all of that. I didn’t do that because I wanted to get at Basketmouth per say. I did that because I was hungry, I was hustling and needed food on the table at the time.”
